Fresh war breaks out over looted Nazi art being displayed in Los Angeles as new lawsuits filed

A decades-long battle over artwork stolen during the Holocaust is resurfacing in Los Angeles, where heirs of Jewish victims are seeking the return of works now held by prominent museums in Southern California and at Auschwitz.Two lawsuits were recently filed following changes to California and federal law that strengthened the ability to pursue US-based claims involving artwork taken from Jewish families during World War II.One of the cases, filed this week in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and its board, renews a dispute with the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena over “Adam and Eve,” a pair of life-size oil-on-panel paintings created by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1530.The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story A separate lawsuit was filed the same day in federal court in Los Angeles by the daughters of Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt, a Holocaust survivor and California-based animator who was imprisoned at Auschwitz.Babbitt was forced to paint watercolors of fellow prisoners for Josef Mengele, the Nazi physician known as the “Angel of Death.” Her daughters are now seeking the return of those works.Neither lawsuit specifies the value of the artwork at the center of the disputes.Representatives for the museums maintain that their institutions have legal title to the artwork and intend to continue displaying the pieces to the public.The Norton Simon Museum pointed to a 2018 federal court decision that unanimously found the museum held proper title to the Cranach paintings.The US Supreme Court declined to take up the dispute in May 2019, leaving the lower court rulings intact.According to the museum, the paintings originally belonged to the Russian noble Stroganov family before the Soviet Union put them up for sale at an illicit ...